Release: AEI Director of Economic Policy Studies Michael Strain Appointed to the Arthur F. Burns Chair in Political Economy

For Immediate Release: Washington, DC, February 13, 2020

American Enterprise Institute (AEI) President Robert Doar announced today that AEI Resident Scholar Michael Strain, the director of Economic Policy Studies at AEI, has been appointed to the Institute’s Arthur F. Burns Chair in Political Economy. Strain will continue to oversee AEI’s work in economic policy, financial markets, international trade and finance, tax and budget policy, welfare economics, health care policy, and related areas. His own research focuses on labor economics, public finance, and social policy.

“I am delighted to appoint Michael Strain to this AEI chair, which has supported a great deal of seminal work over the years,” said AEI President Robert Doar. “Michael’s scholarship, popular commentary, and management of our economics team has improved public policy by advancing empirically sound ideas that bolster competition, economic prosperity, and human flourishing, both at home and abroad.”

Before joining AEI, Strain worked in the Center for Economic Studies at the US Census Bureau and in the macroeconomics research group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It)” (Templeton Press, February 28, 2020); the editor of “The US Labor Market: Questions and Challenges for Public Policy” (AEI Press, 2016); and the coeditor of “Economic Freedom and Human Flourishing: Perspectives from Political Philosophy” (AEI Press, 2016). He was also a member of the AEI-Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity, which published the report “Opportunity, Responsibility, and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream.”

A frequent guest on radio and television, Strain is often published in peer-reviewed academic journals and policy journals, such as Tax Notes and National Affairs, and in the popular press, including in The Atlantic, National Review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He is also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

“It is an honor to be appointed to a chair bearing Arthur Burns’ name and to succeed the distinguished AEI scholars who preceded me. In the spirit of the chair’s namesake, I will work with the AEI Economic Policy Studies team to advance better policy outcomes for America through rigorous and independent research,” said Strain.

The Arthur F. Burns Chair was established by a number of AEI donors in 1984 in honor of economist and Distinguished AEI Fellow in Residence Arthur F. Burns. A notable chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1970 to 1978, Burns also had a remarkable career in academia and government. The Burns Chair at AEI was previously held by AEI Senior Fellow Peter J. Wallison; Charles W. Calomiris, the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia Business School; and Lawrence B. Lindsey, a former director of the National Economic Council.

For media inquiries or other questions, please contact AEI Media Services at [email protected] or 202.862.5829.

###